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Subfield · Materials Science

Biomaterials research

Biomaterials is a subfield of Materials Science. Science Explorer counts 411k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: any substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose.

Research works
411k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
41k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
13
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+24%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
46% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Biomaterials

What is Biomaterials research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Biomedical Applications, Nanocomposites, Drug Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Biodegradable Polymers, Biomaterials. Gaining share since 2011-15: Chitin, Chitosan, Cellulose Nanocrystals, Nanocellulose, Antioxidant. Losing share: Calotropis procera, Latex, Bioinspired Materials, Biomineralization.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 36 words, with their numbers
  1. Biomedical Applications87k◆ 1.09×7 topics
  2. Nanocomposites62k◆ 1.09×5 topics
  3. Drug Delivery46k◆ 0.98×4 topics
  4. Tissue Engineering46k◆ 1.10×5 topics
  5. Biodegradable Polymers32k▲ 1.22×2 topics
  6. Biomaterials27k◆ 1.09×4 topics
  7. Nanofibers26k◆ 0.99×2 topics
  8. Polyhydroxyalkanoates20k◆ 1.06×1 topic
  9. Polylactic Acid20k◆ 1.06×1 topic
  10. Electrospinning20k◆ 1.08×1 topic
  11. Polymer Nanofibers20k◆ 1.08×1 topic
  12. Nanocarriers15k◆ 0.94×1 topic
  13. Nanoparticles15k◆ 0.94×1 topic
  14. Antioxidant14k▲ 1.29×2 topics
  15. Mechanical Properties12k▼ 0.85×3 topics
  16. Chitin12k▲ 1.64×1 topic
  17. Chitosan12k▲ 1.64×1 topic
  18. Cellulose Nanocrystals11k▲ 1.30×1 topic
  19. Nanocellulose11k▲ 1.30×1 topic
  20. Self-Assembly9,991▼ 0.80×2 topics
  21. Biodegradable Materials6,408▼ 0.81×1 topic
  22. Magnesium Alloys6,408▼ 0.81×1 topic
  23. Peptide Amphiphiles6,210▼ 0.80×1 topic
  24. Supramolecular6,210▼ 0.80×1 topic
  25. Clay Nanotubes5,418▼ 0.83×1 topic
  26. Halloysite5,418▼ 0.83×1 topic
  27. Silk Fibroin5,386◆ 0.94×1 topic
  28. Spider Silk5,386◆ 0.94×1 topic
  29. Bioinspired Materials4,177▼ 0.78×1 topic
  30. Biomineralization4,177▼ 0.78×1 topic
  31. Biomimetic Synthesis3,780▼ 0.81×1 topic
  32. Peptide-Directed Materials3,780▼ 0.81×1 topic
  33. Collagen2,874▼ 0.80×1 topic
  34. Gelatin2,874▼ 0.80×1 topic
  35. Calotropis procera1,751▼ 0.52×1 topic
  36. Latex1,751▼ 0.52×1 topic

Which countries lead Biomaterials research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Biomaterials. By volume, China and India publish the most (32k and 11k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.33× citation excellence · 1.30× journals · 100% breadth 14.4% top 10% · 28k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 0.97× citation excellence · 1.61× journals · 100% breadth 10.2% top 10% · 6.5k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.10× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 11.2% top 10% · 1.6k works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 0.86× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 7.7% top 10% · 2.1k works
  5. 5 Canada #9 all time 1.13× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 11.8% top 10% · 1.3k works
  6. 6 South Korea #11 all time 1.02× citation excellence · 0.93× journals · 100% breadth 10.9% top 10% · 2.2k works
  7. 7 Australia #7 all time 1.28× citation excellence · 1.21× journals · 100% breadth 14.4% top 10% · 942 works
  8. 8 Spain #10 all time 1.06× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 9.8% top 10% · 1.7k works
  9. 9 France #5 all time 0.76× citation excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 7.0% top 10% · 1.9k works
  10. 10 India #13 all time 0.85× citation excellence · 0.39× journals · 100% breadth 7.6% top 10% · 9.4k works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 49 countries ranked in Biomaterials. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Biomaterials

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 32k works
  2. 2 India 11k works
  3. 3 United States 7.8k works
  4. 4 Iran 3.4k works
  5. 5 Japan 2.9k works
  6. 6 Brazil 2.8k works
  7. 7 South Korea 2.6k works
  8. 8 Indonesia 2.5k works
  9. 9 Germany 2.5k works
  10. 10 Türkiye 2.4k works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 45.8%India: 15.8%United States: 11.1%Iran: 4.8%6 others listed: 22.4%46%largest
China32k · 45.8%India11k · 15.8%United States7,771 · 11.1%Iran3,383 · 4.8%6 others listed16k · 22.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Biomaterials research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Biomaterials on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Sichuan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 15.4% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2 Sichuan University China · Chengdu · #5 all time 16.3% top 10% · 611 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #6 all time 17.8% top 10% · 412 works
  4. 4 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #11 all time 17.5% top 10% · 372 works
  5. 5 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #2 all time 17.4% top 10% · 108 works
  6. 6 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #3 all time 17.1% top 10% · 217 works
  7. 7 Chongqing University China · Chongqing · #15 all time 16.5% top 10% · 239 works
  8. 8 South China University of Technology China · Guangzhou · #14 all time 12.9% top 10% · 366 works
  9. 9 Peking University China · Beijing · #17 all time 17.4% top 10% · 167 works
  10. 10 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #4 all time 7.0% top 10% · 849 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 270 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Biomaterials.

Top 100 Biomaterials institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 1.4k works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 983 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 958 works
  4. 4 Sichuan UniversityChina 667 works
  5. 5 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 464 works
  6. 6 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 434 works
  7. 7 Zhejiang UniversityChina 417 works
  8. 8 South China University of TechnologyChina 407 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 384 works
  10. 10 Nanjing Forestry UniversityChina 376 works

Who are the leading researchers in Biomaterials?

Counting only their work in Biomaterials, David Lee Kaplan, Seeram Ramakrishna and Róbert Langer have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 David Lee Kaplan United States · #20,404 worldwide overall 143.0 of 485 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore · #2,487 worldwide overall 94.4 of 279 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Róbert Langer United States · #654 worldwide overall 72.2 of 152 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Alain Dufresne France · #79,755 worldwide overall 79.2 of 219 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Yufeng Zheng China · #8,273 worldwide overall 56.6 of 154 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Ali Khademhosseini United States · #1,961 worldwide overall 46.7 of 105 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Kazunori Kataoka Japan · #26,398 worldwide overall 46.8 of 134 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Bin Ding China · #4,003 worldwide overall 42.7 of 117 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Orlando José Rojas Finland · #46,025 worldwide overall 54.0 of 245 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Stephen F. Badylak United States · #6,523 worldwide overall 36.2 of 77 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Biomaterials alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 1,124,457 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Biomaterials researchers

What are the most cited papers in Biomaterials?

The most cited paper in Biomaterials is "Controlled growth of monodisperse silica spheres in the micron size range" (Werner Stöber, Arthur G. Fink, Ernst Bohn, 1968), with 14,524 citations. Next come "Tissue Engineering" (9,666) and "Nanocarriers as an emerging platform for cancer therapy" (8,681).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Controlled growth of monodisperse silica spheres in the micron size range Werner Stöber, Arthur G. Fink, Ernst Bohn · Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 1968 14,524
2 Tissue Engineering Róbert Langer, Joseph P. Vacanti · Science 14 May 1993 9,666
3 Nanocarriers as an emerging platform for cancer therapy Dan Peer, Jeffrey M. Karp, Seungpyo Hong et al. · Nature Nanotechnology Dec 2007 8,681
4 An Empirical Method for Estimating the Degree of Crystallinity of Native Cellulose Using the X-Ray Diffractometer Leon D. Segal, Joseph J. Creely, Andrew Martin et al. · Textile Research Journal Oct 1959 8,675
5 Chitin and chitosan: Properties and applications Marguerite Rinaudo · Progress in Polymer Science Jul 2006 8,231
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Biomaterials research done?

The largest centres of Biomaterials research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Pozzuoli and Iligan City.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 4.2k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 2.2k works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 1.7k works
  4. 4 GuangzhouChina 1.5k works
  5. 5 TehranIran 1.4k works
  6. 6 HangzhouChina 1.2k works
  7. 7 WuhanChina 1.1k works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 1.1k works
  9. 9 Xi'anChina 1.1k works
  10. 10 ChennaiIndia 1k works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. PozzuoliIT · 46.2 works19×
  2. Iligan CityPH · 147.6 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Biomaterials than the world average.

See Biomaterials on the map

Biomaterials research by country

The best places for Biomaterials research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Biomaterials?

Among universities, judged by research, Sichuan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 16.74%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Shanghai Jiao Tong U…University of Chines…Harvard UniversitySichuan University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Sichuan UniversityChina 80.5#2 (#5)16.0%3.2×668 +20.3%
2Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 77.1#3 (#6)17.4%1.8×464 +16.1%
3University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 76.2#6 (#3)16.6%1.6×247 +3.9%
4Harvard UniversityUnited States 75.0#5 (#2)16.6%0.4×121 -23.7%
5Zhejiang UniversityChina 71.7#4 (#11)16.6%1.7×417 +19.6%
6National University of SingaporeSingapore 69.0#18 (#9)18.5%1.6×168 +10.0%
7Chongqing UniversityChina 65.8#7 (#15)16.2%2.7×269 +59.9%
8University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 64.6#12 (#13)17.3%1.6×178 +23.7%
9South China University of TechnologyChina 64.2#8 (#14)12.7%4.1×407 +2.0%
10Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 63.9#15 (#8)19.5%1.1×73 -24.1%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Biomaterials, country by country

Is Biomaterials research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 24% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Nanocomposite Films for Food Packaging, Diatoms and Algae Research and biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Biomaterials as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.43% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%0.60%Biomaterials0.46% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Biomaterials over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Biomaterials9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Nanocomposite Films for Food Packaging+49%
  2. Diatoms and Algae Research+49%
  3. biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties+37%
  4. Collagen: Extraction and Characterization+30%
  5. Advanced Cellulose Research Studies+28%
  6. Silk-based biomaterials and applications+26%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Biomaterials include?

biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties: 73k fractional worksElectrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications: 60k fractional worksNanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery: 48k fractional worksAdvanced Cellulose Research Studies: 33k fractional worksNanocomposite Films for Food Packaging: 30k fractional worksClay minerals and soil interactions: 30k fractional worksSupramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials: 24k fractional worksMagnesium Alloys: Properties and Applications: 23k fractional worksDiatoms and Algae Research: 23k fractional worksSilk-based biomaterials and applications: 21k fractional worksCalcium Carbonate Crystallization and Inhibition: 20k fractional worksCollagen: Extraction and Characterization: 15k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Biomaterials, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Biomaterials, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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